Crude Oil Benchmarks (WTI & Brent)
Also called: WTI, Brent crude, oil benchmark
WTI and Brent are the two reference grades that price most of the world's crude oil. WTI is lighter, sweeter and delivered inland at Cushing, Oklahoma; Brent is seaborne North Sea crude and prices more of the global market. The spread between them reflects transport and logistics rather than quality alone, and it blew out dramatically when US shale production outran pipeline capacity. In 2020 WTI futures famously settled below zero because holders had nowhere to store physical delivery.